4 September 2001

1. "Turkey-economy-vasectomy", Turkish MP favours sterilization to battle economic woes.

2. "Turkey Ends Military Mission In Northern Iraq", Turkey has completed its military incursion in northern Iraq.

3. "Turkish police detain dozens of Kurds in southeast", Police in Turkey's mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir detained 61 protesters in a crackdown on a mass Kurdish rally at the weekend, a security official said on Monday.

4. "Government not sincere on constitutional changes: SP", Turkey's pro-Islamist opposition party has claimed that the coalition government had deliberately failed to devote sufficient time or energy to the process of reforming the country's constitution.

1.-AFP- "Turkey-economy-vasectomy":

Turkish MP favours sterilization to battle economic woes

ANKARA

A Turkish MP has come up with an unusual proposal to help drag Turkey out of a severe crisis which has wreaked havoc on its fragile economy, a Turkish newspaper reported Tuesday.
According to independent deputy Mail Buyukerman, know for his eccentric views, the perfect solution for the crisis is to stop the increase in population by sterilizing men who already have at least two children, the mass-circulation Sabah said.

"Countries like China have already taken measures against increasing population while we have lagged behind," Buyukerman was quoted by Sabah as saying.

The veteran deputy was busy drawing up a draft bill on the issue while holidaying in western Turkey, the newspaper added. "Under the draft bill, every family will be entitled to have only two children," Buyukerman said."Men over 50 years of age will be exempt from undergoing vasectomy and those who refuse to comply with the procedure will be jailed for a year," he added.

Turkey plunged into a grave crisis in February when the government set the lira free from the dollar to contain a liquidity squeeze, causing the currency to slump massively against the greenback.
Since then scores of businesses have closed and hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off as the lira lost nearly haf of its value against the dollar.

2. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey Ends Military Mission In Northern Iraq":

ANKARA

Turkish military sources said thousands of troops returned to their bases in Turkey after nearly a week of operations. The mission targeted Kurdish insurgents in northern Iraq harbored by the regime of President Saddam Hussein. The mission included air and ground attacks on suspected Kurdish Workers Party installations near Hakari.

The sources said PKK agents were being provided military and logistical support from the Saddam regime to operate against Kurds in northern Iraq loyal to Ankara. Kurdish sources had warned for months of an increasing presence of Saddam's agents and Kurdish collaborators in the north. The sources said Saddam has placed car bombs and imposed a reign of terror in parts of the autonomous Kurdish area. In the Turkish offensive, at least 15 PKK insurgents were killed, the sources said. No Turkish casualties were reported.

Kurdish unrest was also reported throughout Turkey. The unrest was said to have been sparked by a call by imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for a new battle against Ankara. "I'm calling on the parties, both the state and PKK to establish a means of dialogue, and for our people to stand up for peace and democracy," Ocalan said in a message. "If the hand for peace is emptied, 2002 will be the year of war."

3. - The Kurdistan Observer - "Turkish police detain dozens of Kurds in southeast":

DIYARBAKIR

Police in Turkey's mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir detained 61 protesters in a crackdown on a mass Kurdish rally at the weekend, a security official said on Monday.

Violence broke out on Friday in Diyarbakir's centre when police prevented protesters from boarding buses to attend a demonstration to mark World Peace Day on Saturday in Ankara. On Saturday, police in Ankara arrested at least 700 people, most whom surrendered without a struggle, to stop the protest organised by the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), the country's only legal pro-Kurdish party which faces possible closure on charges it supports separatist guerrillas. There were also scores of arrests in Istanbul, where police used teargas to break up a weekend HADEP rally.

The detentions in Diyarbakir began on Thursday and continued through Sunday, the official said. The detainees would likely appear in a security court this week, he said.
Seven HADEP officials were among the detained in Diyarbakir, the official said. HADEP campaigns for greater cultural rights, including Kurdish-language broadcasting and education, for Turkey's 12 million Kurds.

4. - NTVMSNBC & NEWS WIRES - "Government not sincere on constitutional changes: SP":

ANKARA

Turkey's pro-Islamist opposition party has claimed that the coalition government had deliberately failed to devote sufficient time or energy to the process of reforming the country's constitution.

The government of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit was not sincere in its support of constitutional change, claimed Veysel Candan, a senior member of the Saadet (Prosperity) Party on Monday.
He said that the government had instead become bogged down by allegations of corruption and was not focusing on the democratisation process.

Candan said that although inter-party consensus had been reached on amending 37 articles of the constitution, the government wanted to reduce this to 11. Though hard to understand, Candan said that his party believed the motive behind this was to deceive the people and give some messages to the European Union.

Turkey needed a civilian constitution reached through social consensus, Candan said, adding if the number of proposed amendments to the constitution were reduced to 11 the Saadet Party (SP) would reconsider its support to the changes.

Speaking to journalists during a meeting of the SP's executive board on Monday evening, Candan said they were also discussing a proposed censure motion against the Minister of Public Works, Koray Aydin.

An ongoing investigation into the activities of the Public Works Ministry has resulted in charges being laid against a number of officials and private businessmen over claims that tenders let by the ministry had been rigged and bribes paid.

He said that the party had the impression that the government would try to cover up corruption by turning it into a political settling of accounts. Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit was trying to save the government by dropping the tension, Candan said.

Both the centre right Motherland Party and the far Right Nationalist Movement Party had been wounded by corruption investigations into the Energy Ministry and the Public Works Ministries respectively the SP official claimed.

"But when do ministers resign?" Candan asked "The arrested bureaucrats that say the tender was awarded by the order of the minister and the losses reach into the trillions. The minister keeps his position. It is impossible to understand this."